ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
HERE IS YOUR WEEKEND PORTION....
Arriving two nights before the service, and always more or less in Kruinh’s immediate sphere were Alexandra and Leo. Alexandra was brown, the color of nuts, with wide dark ancient eyes in a long face and rich dark hair. She wore flowing white always whether in robes, kaftans or dresses, and Leo was easy to identify because he looked like a paler version of Laurie with his large dark eyes ringed by darker circles. With them came a young couple, pale Joseph, who looked like a more serious version of Dan, or at least a more suburban one in his polo shirts and chinos and hair part, and his wife, the golden haired.
“These are my oldest friends,” Kruinh said. “These are the clan of Byzantium, and Alexandra and Leo are their heads.”
“Byzantium?” David and Sunny began, for Sunny was beside David, and he had only heard of them.
“You must be Sunny!” Irene’s voice rang out in a midwestern accent. Her wide blue eyes, her hair and her disposition, was just as Sunny as Sunny’s own. She threw her arms around him.
“Hug them, Joseph! They’re family.”
Joseph, or Joe, looked embarrassed. He was shy, but it was easy to tell how much he was in love with Irene, and David, thinking he was by far the most ordinary of the vampires, gravitated toward him.
“I love kids,” Joe said, watching Irene laughing around a table as she lifted a dark haired boy and kissed him. They must live in America, for he too had chosen a Midwestern accents as Kruinh and Tanitha nearly, but not quite, also had.
“Irene is a great mother. We’re good on our own, and of course children are always children, in a way, but we like the being parents to kids thing, and we keep on starting families. This is our seventh one,” he said, reflectively.
“Joe, can I ask you a question?”
“Shoot.”
“Exactly… how old are you and Irene?”
Joe gave a hooked grin that reminded David of Dominic back home.
“I can’t say off the top of my head anymore, but we were all teenagers—not that we called it that—when me and Irene met Kruinh. It must have been… around the time when those Frank bastards destroyed Constantinople.”
Joe took out his cigarettes, offered one to Sunny. He lit Sunny’s then his and shook his head, narrowing his eyes.
“It was a fuck of a time. A fuck of a time. You know, humans always blame the monsters. They make the movies where the werewolf or the vampire or whatever comes to kill them. But Dave, in my whole life I’ve never killed as many humans as the ones who killed each other the day those Catholic bastards took our city. When the Muslims finally came, not even they did near as much damage.”
“This Catholic bastard apologizes on their behalf.”
Joseph barked a laugh.
“You know how your wedding ceremony is supposed to go?” Joe asked.
“‘May He, Who by His presence in Cana of Galilee declared marriage to be honorable, Christ our true God, through the intercessions of His all‑pure Mother, of the holy, glorious, and all‑praiseworthy Apostles, of the holy, God‑crowned and Equal‑to‑the‑Apostles Constantine and Helen, of the Holy, great Martyr Procopios, and of all the holy Saints, have mercy on us and save us, as our good and loving Lord.’
“But when Kruinh was to marry Elisaveda, and she saw those words, she said she didn’t give a damn about Procopios and Constantine, and Helen meant nothing to her. She was a Catholic, a Venetian you see, and the Venetians were the very ones who had led the Catholics in destroying my city. But… That was in the past, and Veda was a great woman. David, you and me are going to be great friends, no doubt. I am over seven hundred years old. The only things I’ve ever really learned are friendship is king, loyalty is essential, and everything changes, so you can’t hold on.”
A long time ago, the God Osiris came to Egypt to rule as King. He brought the Egyptian people new laws and taught them how to farm well and live peacefully in their villages. Osiris was a wise and powerful king, loved and respected by his people. But Set, God of Shadows and of the outer places, planned to kill Osiris and take his throne. Late one night, Seth measured Osiris’s body from top to bottom and from side to side. The next morning, Seth took the measurements to a carpenter who made a beautiful wooden chest decorated with bright paint and sheets of gold. That night, Seth threw a great feast, and invited Osiris as the guest of honor. The night was spent feasting, singing, dancing, and playing games. For the final game, Seth brought out the huge wooden chest. He announced that the first person to fit perfectly into the chest would be allowed to keep it. One by one, each of Seth’s friends climbed into the chest. Unsurprisingly, no one was able to fit into the chest, which was made for Osiris. Seth convinced his brother to try and Osiris stepped into the chest and lay down. The chest fit him perfectly, and just as Osiris lay down, Seth slammed the lid and sealed it shut. Seth chopped the coffin and the body into fourteen pieces and tossed them half into the Nile and the other half all over Egypt.
Now Isis, Goddess of all Magics, and sister to Seth and Osiris as well as Osiris’s Queen, rose the next morning and learned of what Set has done. Though the Goddess of Night, Nephthys, her sister was the bride of Seth, she loved Osiris, and so she and her sister transformed into huge birds and flew high over Egypt. Using their sharp vision, they was able to find all the pieces of the body to put Osiris back together. With the help of Nepthys, Thoth, and Anubis, Isis performed a great act of magic. Very carefully, they began to sew Osiris’s body back together. They worked together night after night. When the body was whole once again, they wrapped it head to toe in strips of linen, creating a mummy. Then, in her grief, the Goddess mounted her husband, riding him one last time, and in this moment he was reborn, Osiris, king of shadows, lord of the world of death which mirrors our own and to which our own owes its ultimate debt….
When he had awakened, when he had resolved to find his killers, and bring justice to the house of Kertesz, Kruinh nodded to David and then turned and left. He barred the doors of the great hall. David, beholding Tanitha, was filled with a powerful desire he’d never known. He kissed her hard, drawing the vampires to him, and her gown of mourning opened so that his teeth sank into her breast. It seemed no strange thing to drink from her, to have blood for the first time, to fill a new strength rising in his body. Later, when she took him to hunt, she understood he was a man of law man, and for him there had been little grey room. She took him to the city. She showed him killers. This had been a totalitatian state for years. There were many people who had done many things and felt no guilt. They would die quickly in David’s jaws and, surprisingly, he would have no remorse.
Arriving two nights before the service, and always more or less in Kruinh’s immediate sphere were Alexandra and Leo. Alexandra was brown, the color of nuts, with wide dark ancient eyes in a long face and rich dark hair. She wore flowing white always whether in robes, kaftans or dresses, and Leo was easy to identify because he looked like a paler version of Laurie with his large dark eyes ringed by darker circles. With them came a young couple, pale Joseph, who looked like a more serious version of Dan, or at least a more suburban one in his polo shirts and chinos and hair part, and his wife, the golden haired.
“These are my oldest friends,” Kruinh said. “These are the clan of Byzantium, and Alexandra and Leo are their heads.”
“Byzantium?” David and Sunny began, for Sunny was beside David, and he had only heard of them.
“You must be Sunny!” Irene’s voice rang out in a midwestern accent. Her wide blue eyes, her hair and her disposition, was just as Sunny as Sunny’s own. She threw her arms around him.
“Hug them, Joseph! They’re family.”
Joseph, or Joe, looked embarrassed. He was shy, but it was easy to tell how much he was in love with Irene, and David, thinking he was by far the most ordinary of the vampires, gravitated toward him.
“I love kids,” Joe said, watching Irene laughing around a table as she lifted a dark haired boy and kissed him. They must live in America, for he too had chosen a Midwestern accents as Kruinh and Tanitha nearly, but not quite, also had.
“Irene is a great mother. We’re good on our own, and of course children are always children, in a way, but we like the being parents to kids thing, and we keep on starting families. This is our seventh one,” he said, reflectively.
“Joe, can I ask you a question?”
“Shoot.”
“Exactly… how old are you and Irene?”
Joe gave a hooked grin that reminded David of Dominic back home.
“I can’t say off the top of my head anymore, but we were all teenagers—not that we called it that—when me and Irene met Kruinh. It must have been… around the time when those Frank bastards destroyed Constantinople.”
Joe took out his cigarettes, offered one to Sunny. He lit Sunny’s then his and shook his head, narrowing his eyes.
“It was a fuck of a time. A fuck of a time. You know, humans always blame the monsters. They make the movies where the werewolf or the vampire or whatever comes to kill them. But Dave, in my whole life I’ve never killed as many humans as the ones who killed each other the day those Catholic bastards took our city. When the Muslims finally came, not even they did near as much damage.”
“This Catholic bastard apologizes on their behalf.”
Joseph barked a laugh.
“You know how your wedding ceremony is supposed to go?” Joe asked.
“‘May He, Who by His presence in Cana of Galilee declared marriage to be honorable, Christ our true God, through the intercessions of His all‑pure Mother, of the holy, glorious, and all‑praiseworthy Apostles, of the holy, God‑crowned and Equal‑to‑the‑Apostles Constantine and Helen, of the Holy, great Martyr Procopios, and of all the holy Saints, have mercy on us and save us, as our good and loving Lord.’
“But when Kruinh was to marry Elisaveda, and she saw those words, she said she didn’t give a damn about Procopios and Constantine, and Helen meant nothing to her. She was a Catholic, a Venetian you see, and the Venetians were the very ones who had led the Catholics in destroying my city. But… That was in the past, and Veda was a great woman. David, you and me are going to be great friends, no doubt. I am over seven hundred years old. The only things I’ve ever really learned are friendship is king, loyalty is essential, and everything changes, so you can’t hold on.”
A long time ago, the God Osiris came to Egypt to rule as King. He brought the Egyptian people new laws and taught them how to farm well and live peacefully in their villages. Osiris was a wise and powerful king, loved and respected by his people. But Set, God of Shadows and of the outer places, planned to kill Osiris and take his throne. Late one night, Seth measured Osiris’s body from top to bottom and from side to side. The next morning, Seth took the measurements to a carpenter who made a beautiful wooden chest decorated with bright paint and sheets of gold. That night, Seth threw a great feast, and invited Osiris as the guest of honor. The night was spent feasting, singing, dancing, and playing games. For the final game, Seth brought out the huge wooden chest. He announced that the first person to fit perfectly into the chest would be allowed to keep it. One by one, each of Seth’s friends climbed into the chest. Unsurprisingly, no one was able to fit into the chest, which was made for Osiris. Seth convinced his brother to try and Osiris stepped into the chest and lay down. The chest fit him perfectly, and just as Osiris lay down, Seth slammed the lid and sealed it shut. Seth chopped the coffin and the body into fourteen pieces and tossed them half into the Nile and the other half all over Egypt.
Now Isis, Goddess of all Magics, and sister to Seth and Osiris as well as Osiris’s Queen, rose the next morning and learned of what Set has done. Though the Goddess of Night, Nephthys, her sister was the bride of Seth, she loved Osiris, and so she and her sister transformed into huge birds and flew high over Egypt. Using their sharp vision, they was able to find all the pieces of the body to put Osiris back together. With the help of Nepthys, Thoth, and Anubis, Isis performed a great act of magic. Very carefully, they began to sew Osiris’s body back together. They worked together night after night. When the body was whole once again, they wrapped it head to toe in strips of linen, creating a mummy. Then, in her grief, the Goddess mounted her husband, riding him one last time, and in this moment he was reborn, Osiris, king of shadows, lord of the world of death which mirrors our own and to which our own owes its ultimate debt….
When he had awakened, when he had resolved to find his killers, and bring justice to the house of Kertesz, Kruinh nodded to David and then turned and left. He barred the doors of the great hall. David, beholding Tanitha, was filled with a powerful desire he’d never known. He kissed her hard, drawing the vampires to him, and her gown of mourning opened so that his teeth sank into her breast. It seemed no strange thing to drink from her, to have blood for the first time, to fill a new strength rising in his body. Later, when she took him to hunt, she understood he was a man of law man, and for him there had been little grey room. She took him to the city. She showed him killers. This had been a totalitatian state for years. There were many people who had done many things and felt no guilt. They would die quickly in David’s jaws and, surprisingly, he would have no remorse.
